


King of Thieves

by animenutcase



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-04-18 14:03:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14214741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animenutcase/pseuds/animenutcase
Summary: Corpul had heard of Verdane. It was, if the stories were true, something of a paradox: Beautiful forests and the largest lake in Jugdral contrasted with the iron-fisted rule of not the Grannvale Empire, but bandits and other unsavory types.And, if Lewyn was telling the truth, it was also Corpul's birthright.Was is really smart of him to bring his lover with him to claim the throne? Should he have even bothered trying to take the throne at all?Of course! Verdane needed its king, and its king needed a queen that knew the ways of thieves.





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> Me: I should work on revising the most recent chapter of The Hidden Self.  
> My brain: Post a new project, you stupid bitch.

Corpul realized that he had been somewhat sheltered growing up.

He was the younger of General Hannibal's two sons despite his appearance. Sharlow may have been shorter and had a baby-face, but he was the elder of the two and he never let Corpul forget it.

"You have a baby-face, too, you know." Sharlow often said, rolling his eyes. "And so did your mother."

If not for the fact that Sharlow was old enough to remember the day Corpul's mother had left him at the orphanage at Thracia, Corpul never would have guessed that he and Sharlow weren't related by blood.

"I was still pretty little back then-" Sharlow told him one day, pausing to kick Corpul when he said that Sharlow was still pretty little. "And it's not like she was the first mother to leave her child there... But there was something about her that stood out in my mind."

Sharlow told him that Corpul's mother had been crying hysterically when she left him at the orphanage. She'd said she was sorry, but she was going on a dangerous journey and that she couldn't take him with her. She'd promised that she'd come back for him and she'd have his sister with her.

Learning that he had an older sister was something of a surprise for Corpul; He'd known that Sharlow had an older sister who had left him at the orphanage when he was still young, but he'd had no idea that he had one as well.

"Wait... How come I've never met her before?"  
"My guess is she was left at a different orphanage." Sharlow mused. "I think your mother was a dancer, so she probably traveled a lot."

Corpul didn't know what to do with that information. He'd lived in Thracia his entire life, so he had no idea of where to look if he wanted to find his mother or his sister. He had no way of even knowing if either of them was alive.

So he did nothing. He'd already been living as General Hannibal's son for as long as he could remember, so it seemed silly to focus on the family that abandoned him (whatever their reasons were) when he had a brother and father that loved him despite their lack of shared blood.

One day, Corpul learned that the liberation army had taken Mease. His father had heard good things about them and their leader, Sir Seliph. Corpul asked if Kapathogia was going to ally with them.

"That would be nice, Corpul, but..." Father gave him a slightly bitter smile. "I doubt that stubborn king of ours will agree to allow any part of Thracia to be controlled by the liberation army. No doubt we'll soon be ordered to take Mease back."  
"Are you going to do it?" Sharlow asked. "King Travant knows how influential you are. Could he really make you fight the liberation army if you didn't want to?"

Father chuckled, but he still seemed worried.

Almost immediately afterword, Corpul and Sharlow were taken to Luthecia as hostages. So Travant _did_ understand that simply ordering Father to fight wouldn't be enough.

Within a day, however, Sir Seliph had come to their rescue. Before long, they'd reunited with their father and joined the liberation army together.

That evening, he met Patty and Leen.

Patty had been curious about the sons of the great General Hannibal and had been scoping them out. Apparently, they hadn't impressed her.

"You're just a kid." She said dismissively.  
"Like you're one to talk." He immediately fired back. "You're just a kid too, aren't you?"

She hadn't liked that, demanding to know if he was saying she looked like a kid.

"Yes." He'd said bluntly. He'd never liked lying.

Patty had gotten angry at his words, but he simply shrugged them off.

Despite the rough start, however, they quickly became close.

Unlike Corpul, Patty and her brother were determined to find their parents, who they were sure were still alive. For Corpul, who was content with his father and brother, it was kind of... nice to see how eager Patty was to hear about her parents; She was frequently pestering Lewyn, Finn, Oifey and Shanan for stories.

Lewyn appeared to be the one who knew the most, but he'd apparently not been all that forthcoming with information. Most of the members of the liberation army were the children of those who had marched with Sigurd of Chalphy, but they didn't know that much about their parents besides their names, and in some cases they were lucky to have even that. Teeny didn't even find out Lewyn was her father until they'd nearly reached Grannvale.

Growing up, Corpul had heard stories of Sigurd as a vile traitor, but by the time Corpul had joined the army, those stories had changed to folk tales of a brave hero who fought to do the right thing, even when it led to his downfall.

Leen liked hearing those sorts of stories. While Patty often pestered those who'd known Sigurd for stories of her parents, Leen liked to go to Shanan to hear stories of Sigurd. It was part of the reason she and Femina became such good friends.

"I'm a little jealous." Corpul heard Leen tell Seliph one day. "I don't know anything about my lineage, so I can't say I have a legacy to live up to."  
"Well, Sylvia didn't really like to talk about her family." Lewyn, who was pretty much always near Seliph, shrugged. "The most she said was that her birth mother was the illegitimate daughter of an illegitimate son from a descendant of Saint Blaggi, and she'd run away from the people who took her in as soon as she was old enough to support herself with her dancing. After she latched on to me, she basically never looked back."

There was a pause.

"Lord Lewyn?" Leen began staring at him. "Did-Did you know my parents?"  
"I did." Lewyn nodded. "The last time I saw your mother, she was on her way to Darna. She said she'd left her son in Thracia until she could safely return with her daughter."  
"I have a brother!?" Leen gasped. "What was his name?"  
"Corpul, now that I think about it." Lewyn noted. "Apparently Jamke had been killed by a Loptyrian, and she wasn't sure she could support a child. But a few months after she left you in Darna, she found out she was pregnant. I guess she thought it was a sign from Blaggi that she was supposed to be a mom and decided to get her daughter back."

Jamke? Like that Verdanese prince who had traveled with Sigurd? Did that mean Leen was a princess? And a descendant of Saint Blaggi? And if Corpul was their child, too, didn't that make them siblings?

Corpul's life had already been altered the moment he joined the liberation army. Now, it seemed, life was only going to get more complicated for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah. Sylvia and Jamke. Probably one of the crackiest of the possible crackships of Gen 1 (and there are a _lot_ of those). They kind of got thrown together after I realized that I didn't have anyone to marry Jamke, since I already had specific lovers planned for the other women (one of which didn't pan out (Briggid with Finn) on my first playthrough because I am both a dumbass and very bad at video games). 
> 
> (I later decided I liked Briggid/Holyn better anyway. Go figure.)
> 
> Then I decided to pair Patty with Corpul partly to keep her away from Shanan (though I'd already made sure Shanan was set to end up with Leen by the time Corpul showed up), and partly so all of the major rulers had lovers ~~(cue Teeny ditching Seliph for Freege and Julia ditching Ares for Grannvale)~~. It helped that they had an actual conversation to boost love points.
> 
> And yet, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of Verdane getting a ruler so ill-suited for taking the throne like Corpul, but of that ruler taking a wife that just might have what it takes to manipulate the forces ruling it (i.e. bandits and thieves) to their favor, like Patty.
> 
> This is probably gonna be a series of short chapters focusing on Corpul and Patty's journey through Verdane in order to reach the capital and take the throne.
> 
> Oh, and obviously this is something of an AU, since Corpul grew up with Sharlow as a brother. I think it's a shame to leave the replacement characters out, so I like to include them alongside the regular children.


	2. Deliberation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can you act like a sibling to someone you thought was just a friend?

Father wasted no time in taking Leen and Laylea (who revealed herself as Sharlow's long-lost sister) under his wing.

Laylea explained that she'd intended to return for Sharlow, but he'd been gone by the time she returned. She'd suspected that he was her brother from the moment they'd met, but she hadn't been sure how to broach the subject.

While they were reconciling, Corpul and Leen were discussing how to move forward as siblings and the only remaining heirs to Verdane's throne.

"I heard that Verdane is filled with bandits." Leen said emotionlessly. "And... lots of nasty types."

There was something in her tone as she said "nasty types" that told Corpul she'd had some experience with those sorts of people, and it made Corpul feel guilty. While life in Thracia certainly wasn't the best, Corpul had grown up relatively happy with Father and Sharlow. Leen, however, had evidently struggled a lot.

"Leen, I-"  
"And I've only ever really been around Darna." She cut him off, and he could sense that she wanted to change the subject. "I know dancers are supposed to travel a lot, but I was always kind of afraid of leaving the city. It felt like I _needed_ to be there. I guess it might have been something in my blood telling me that I was supposed to be there the day the liberation army arrived."

It was said that Saint Blaggi and his descendants were able to divine the future. Perhaps neither Leen nor Corpul were able to actually _see_ it, but they could still tell when something was going to happen. Father had always told him he had good instincts.

"And Shanan..." Leen blushed. "He makes me really... _really_ happy."

Corpul gestured for her to continue.

"He's really strong and determined, but he's also really kind, too." She looked away, seeming almost embarrassed. "He talks about Sir Seliph like he's a little brother and what he wants to do for Isaach... And the other day, he told me he wanted me to go with him when he returns to Isaach."

She paused.

"I don't... I don't think I could take Verdane's throne." She said quietly. "I know there are girls out there that could do it, but... I'm not one of them."  
"It's okay." Corpul stepped forward and hugged her. "We don't have to decide yet, and if you really don't want to..."  
"I'm sorry." Leen whispered. "I'm the older one, so I should be the one to take on that sort of burden, but..."  
"It's okay." Corpul says again. "We only just learned who our parents are. I still feel kind weird about this, too."  
"So why, then?" Leen asked. "Why are you willing to do this if you're hesitating?"

Corpul couldn't find an answer to give her.

It wasn't as though Thracia wasn't going to be in need of help to rebuild itself. Father and Sharlow had already pledged to do whatever they could to support Leif and Altena. It would be strange if Corpul chose to leave them to take the throne of a nation he'd never been to.

And yet, Father told him that he needed to decide where to go for himself.

"There comes a time when children need to choose their own paths." He'd said the night before.

That was all well and good, but it didn't really help Corpul decide whether or not he should leave his family to claim the throne of a land that even the Grannvale Empire abandoned.

Corpul decided to talk to Lewyn the next day. Maybe learning more about his parents would help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't imagine deciding to take the Verdane throne would be an easy one, especially for someone like Corpul. Hence, he's still hesitating even after talking with Leen.


End file.
